Two Samhain poems shared by Nicky and Leslie:
when the crack between space and time
time to drive dream and vision..
I am tomorrows ancesters, the future of yesterday
We shared our Chestnut knowledge, and added a memory of our grandparents.
My grandmother made the best bacon and eggs
The bucket of sweet fat chestnuts I collected were all eaten by mice
My grandmother, dressed in dark plum dresshing gown, would pour a bit of Earl Grey from her cup into a saucer to drink
The Beauyeau tapestry got it all wrong: William threw a conker into the eye of Harrold, so he became known as William the Conker.
My Grandmother grew sunflowers, so I grow sunflowers today
My grandmother used to tell us stories of when she was a land girl during the war working the hop fields.
I remember shining up the conkers at school. setting them out on the kitchen table. Granny Gay was a great story teller
Nolly would put out a bucket of conkers for the children of Halesworth, least they forget how to play with them.
Each sweet chestnut has 6 hairs, the remains of the stigma
Grandmas golden syrup steam pudding
The catkins are bi-sexual and pollinate in the wind
Roasting chestnuts on an open fire with my grandmother
Grandfather lost his legs, and the war ministry got him work in the poppy factory in Canning town.
Chestnuts, jupiter, Zeus, carry male energy. Women who wanted to conceive, carried them in their pockets.
Named Horse Chestnut because shaped liked an inverted horse. shoe.
Grandma small and round, Mancunian, wore hats with feathers sticking out
The oldest chestnut trees are grown on Mt Etna, 2,000 years old
Grannie Annie was the best cook, amazing yorkshire puddings
Sweet chestnuts are very nutricious, Chestnut Wellington
Conkers ground up were fed to horses
Put chestnuts in your bedroom to keep spiders away – may help with moths too
Grandma, top of the table, always wore a hat. Cooked soup on the window sill
I was bought up by one grandparents called Ay Ay, barking mad. Paintings hidden around her leg.
Rachel read from Around the World in 80 Trees:
In Kiev, an early C19th craze for planting horse chestnuts never abated and now there is nowhere better than to enjoy them… Anne Frank could see a horse chestnut from a window in the Amsterdam attic where she lived in hiding. Their branches inspired her with hope. When the tree died in 2010 samplings grown from its seeds were distributed as beacons of optimism.
Diana gave us an amazingly successful demonstration of how to make soap out of horse chestnuts. She’d been using it to wash, hair, body and clothes for over a year – a living testament of its success.
Of course, we played chestnuts on a string competition. And Kally made some flying comet chestnuts, which we aimed through hoops with some success.
Chai, Chestnuts, catch a Conker Comets – it was a C day
I was going to sulk if we didn’t come today
I go away feeling better than when I arrived
I feel re-born this afternoon
Learned a bit, played a bit
Such joy to be here
Kinda Elders in the woods 